


Mania

by Orcbait (EmpressofMankind)



Series: Season of the Dragon [5]
Category: Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls Online
Genre: Adventure & Romance, Canon LGBTQ Character, Comedy, F/M, High Fantasy, LGBTQ Character, Multi, Polyamory, literally everyone is bisexual, no one is straight
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-17
Updated: 2019-07-17
Packaged: 2020-06-30 03:01:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19844191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmpressofMankind/pseuds/Orcbait
Summary: Pulasia Tharn joins her husband Abnur Tharn to a modest art exhibit featuring a queer Bosmer artist of peculiar skill. She gets to meet Ramira Don, who Abnur has been seeing for a while by then, and proceeds to be completely unsurprised by what she’s like: he has a type. And no, that’s absolutely not Sheogorath making faces in the background.





	Mania

“I can see what you like about her.” 

Pulasia Tharn stood beside her husband, arms linked and staves in hand. A knowing smile played around her lips. They were standing in front of a large landscape painting they’d been appraising, a ways further down the modest hall from where the pint-sized Bosmer artist stood her ground against an obnoxious Altmer critic. 

Abnur crooked an eyebrow, glancing sideways and down at her. “Can you, now?” He shifted his arm through her hold and put it around her waist instead.

Pulasia’s smile deepened with fondness as she stood up on the balls of her feet and pressed a peck against his thin lips. “You aren’t half as abstruse as you like to think you are, my love.”

“I think,” Abnur scoffed and leaned towards her, his hand idly stroking her hip. “That you overestimate how clever everyone else is. Few see through people with the ease you do.”

“Except you, you mean?” she teased. 

That little smirk, which she so loved about him, crept onto his face, squinting his blue eyes with smug amusement. “Obviously.”

Pulasia kissed him again, longer this time. He returned her kiss and tugged her a fraction closer. After a moment, she broke their kiss and turned to the landscape painting. “I think I should like seeing this artwork when I enter the triclinium.”

Abnur straightened, shifting his attention to the large canvas as well. “It is certainly a conversation piece.”

The painting had an odd orientation. It was approximately trice as high as it was wide as if an elongated landscape canvas had been used the wrong way around. And, perhaps, it had. The painting depicted a forested lakeshore with a sequestered, vaguely Imperial tower, and its reflection upon the water. It was painted in the broad strokes and bold pinks, purples, turquoises and blues typical of the Bosmer’s unusual style. The foliage around the shore was in wild, vibrant bloom while their reflection showed withering decay. The tower’s reflected twin had crumbled. 

The only thing rendered in any detail was the gentleman standing at the shoreline, cane in hand and a fluffy skeever upon his shoulder. Grey of hair and meticulous in appearance, he wore an oddly tailored suit of violently coloured fabrics. He was smiling and it was terribly difficult to look away from his bright eyes. At first, it seemed as if he had no reflection. Upon closer inspection, the blur of his retreating back could be seen further into the reflected landscape, tracking a trail of red and entrails from the shore.

“The content of artists’ dreams are strange and wondrous.” Every time Pulasia looked at it, she found something new within the suggestion of its bold strokes. Such as the presence of celestial bodies in the sky above but not below. Or the smudge of fluff and bones half-submerged in the reflected water. “I am certain there are ample masters at Shimmerene with a technical grasp firmer than hers but I don’t think any of them dream as she does.”

Abnur nodded in agreement, his expression thoughtful. “I suspect these are not sights merely glimpsed in dreams.”

“Where would she see anything as fantastical as these but in her mind’s eye?” Pulasia glanced at him from the corners of her eyes. Abnur pursed his lips, considering his response with care. Pulasia could tell and it instilled her with a sudden sense of foreboding. 

“The Shivering Isles,” he mused under his breath.

It took Pulasia a moment to process what she’d heard and not because he’d spoken practically inaudible. She looked back at the painting with renewed - and more cautious - interest. Her gaze was inexorably tugged to the figure standing upon the sandy shores. “Then that’s—”

“Maybe.” Abnur shook his head, uncharacteristically reluctant to pronounce the name they both had in mind. “Or simply someone she knows who suits her idea of him. Artists get like that.”

Pulasia studied the finely rendered details of the figure. His garments were strange but very fine and his grey hair was smoothed back, a neat goatee framing his little smirk. Subtle lines that accentuated his amusement wrinkled the corners of his blue eyes. There was something familiar about him that she couldn’t quite put her finger on.

“If it’s someone she knows, then that’s not often a young woman finds herself an older muse.” A thoughtful frown creased Pulasia’s brow. She tucked a grey bang behind her ear.

“She’s about your age, I think. No doubt, it’s the mer in her veins.” Abnur’s gaze drifted to the Bosmer. The bothersome critic had disappeared. She was talking animatedly to a Redguard woman, perhaps another patron.

“Hm, perhaps I should get myself some of that.” Pulasia reached a hand up to rub her cheek in thought as she turned her attention to the artistic mer as well.

Abnur crooked an eyebrow, then leaned down to press a kiss against the frown creasing her brow. “You’re beautiful the way you are, sweeting.”

A grin twitched around Pulasia’s lips as she glanced up at him. “Bold of you to assume I am speaking of the mer’s blood.” For an instant, that irked look he gets when outwitted flitted across his craggy face. She found it adorable and it made her grin a fraction wider still. He recovered fast.

Abnur rubbed his chin, feigning deep thought, then leaned towards her. “Do I take that to mean you want me to bring her with when you wish to retire?”

“Oh, no. No, you’d like that far too much. No, I was thinking of a dinner for two.” She suppressed a smile and feigned a thoughtful look in turn, looking him up and down. “Perhaps, this fredas? You have an assembly meeting then, don’t you?”

The long face he pulled was preposterous and made her laugh. She reached for him, enveloping his jaw in both hands. “Maybe, if you’re good some time,” she whispered against his lips, then gave his goatee a playful tug. “Less obstinate.”

**Author's Note:**

> A lot of time and hard work went into the creation and publication of this story and as such, it is very dear to me. I would love to hear what you thought of it! And please, share this story freely but credit me and link back to me. Thank you!


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